Apricot Cake Recipe: 3 Tips for Baking Apricot Cake
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Jul 23, 2022 • 3 min read
Ring in the warm nights of early summer with an apricot cake, one of the easiest stone fruit dessert recipes.
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What Is Apricot Cake?
An apricot cake is a variety of fresh fruit cake, a simple baked dessert made from flour, butter, eggs, sugar, leaveners, and, occasionally, a liquid dairy like buttermilk or sour cream. Apricots belong to the stone fruit family, along with nectarines, peaches, plums, and cherries. These golf ball–size fruits have a rosy-orange color; velvety, edible skin; and sweet flesh that can be musky like honey when ripe or bright and tart when still firm.
Depending on how you incorporate the fruits, apricot cakes may take the form of a pound cake, a buckle, or a sponge cake with an apricot glaze or apricot jam filling. Some apricot cake recipes resemble a French clafoutis or German aprikosenkuchen, an upside-down cake studded with apricot halves and baked in a springform pan.
Like fig cake or cherry cake, you can serve apricot cake for breakfast or brunch alongside coffee or tea or with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for dessert.
3 Tips for Baking Apricot Cake
An apricot cake can be as ornate or rustic as you like. Here’s what to know.
- 1. Use fresh apricots, apricot jam, or dried apricots. Depending on the season and what you have available, there are a few ways to incorporate apricots into a cake. If you have fresh apricots, either halve them for an upside-down cake or clafoutis or dice them for use in a pound cake. (Toss the chopped fruit in a bit of flour before gently folding the pieces into the batter to prevent sinking.) If apricots are out of season, rehydrate dried apricots in a bit of lemon juice or brandy before roughly chopping and adding them to the batter. Use apricot jam as a top glaze for a lemony tea cake or between the layers of a layer cake.
- 2. Serve warm or at room temperature. The floral flavor of apricots is most potent when the fruit is warm. If serving the cake out of the refrigerator, let it come to room temperature on the counter first.
- 3. Incorporate spices or nuts. Apricots are famously versatile pairing partners. Experiment with apricot cake by adding different warm spices (like green cardamom or cinnamon) or finely chopped nuts (like pistachio or pecan) to your batter.
Upside-Down Apricot Cake Recipe
makes
1 9-inch cakeprep time
15 mintotal time
50 mincook time
35 minIngredients
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 2
Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. (If you’re using a regular cake pan, line it with overlapping strips of parchment paper for easy lifting.)
- 3
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- 4
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- 5
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well to incorporate after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
- 6
Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, and beat until smooth.
- 7
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, mixing on low speed just until the flour mixture is incorporated.
- 8
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, and use a rubber spatula to fold in the buttermilk.
- 9
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan, using a rubber spatula to smooth the batter into an even layer.
- 10
Arrange the apricot halves on top of the batter, cut-side down. (They will sink a little.)
- 11
Sprinkle the top of the cake with the Demerara sugar.
- 12
Bake the cake until it’s puffed and golden brown, and a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it, about 35 minutes.
- 13
Serve the cake with a light dusting of powdered sugar, if desired.
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